The global financial and economic storm is engulfing everyone

Well, 2012 had hardly started before global ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded France’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ and issued a negative outlook for the country. Italy, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta...

What should be done regarding South Africa’s VIP air transport?

I must say that I am most pleased that Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu rejected the resignation of South African Air Force (SAAF) Chief, Lieutenant-General Carlo Gagiano. The Chief of the Air Force (CAF) offered his resignation over the problems...

Ibsa grouping is a real deal, unlike talk shop Brics

Last week saw the hosting of the fifth India, Brazil, South Africa Dialogue Forum (Ibsa) summit by South Africa, in Pretoria. I have had the good fortune to attend three of these summits (one in Brazil, one in India and now, one in South Africa),...

The Mother City to be Space City for a week

From October 3 to October 7, Cape Town will host the 62nd International Astronautical Conference (IAC), which is the first ever to be held in Africa. Note that title again – astronautical, not astronomical. The IAC groups together all those...

Crises in the US, eurozone will not leave SA unscathed

It is really not possible to make no mention in this column of the recent and historic downgrading of the US Federal government’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s. Of course, since then, another ratings agency,...

America’s manned space programme in the doldrums, but others aren’t

The American space shuttle programme has, after 30 years, come to an end. Officially designated the Space Transportation System by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) – hence the STS prefix to shuttle flight numbers – the...

Local defence industry, especially Denel, constrained by defence budget limitations

South Africa’s State-owned defence industrial group, Denel, which is also the country’s biggest defence company, has again been in the news with the announcement of its new board. Denel, of course, is still going through its turnaround...

Fukushima crisis still very serious, but its effects are very limited

A month after the dreadful March 11 earthquake and tsunami which devastated a large part of northeastern Honshu, the main island of Japan, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that, as of April 13, “the situation at the...